CMS 272, "Science Fiction and other Cinematic Speculations," taught by Professor Jennifer M. Bean, fulfills the pre-requisite for the Cinema and Media Studies (CMS) major.
Overview
This course examines the development of science-fiction in American cinema from the early twentieth to the early twenty-first centuries. At the broadest level, science fiction offers an artistic and intellectual space to speculate on what is in relation to what might be. It is a vehicle for expressing and questioning ideas related to technology, history, society, and identity. As Samuel Delany writes, “Science fiction is a tool to help you think.” We can also understand the films and media objects we are studying as “speculative fictions,” meaning they encourage cognitive estrangement from the known world and inspire contemplation of alternative realities and possibilities. Importantly, however, science fiction also always engages our senses, evoking feelings ranging from terror and repulsion to awe, curiosity and wonder.
While the structure of this course will be historical, our focus will be analytical, with special emphasis on genre theory and criticism, American culture, critical race studies, theories of gender and sexuality, and environmental studies. To facilitate our engagement with the genre’s artistic-cultural history, students will develop skills for analyzing cinematography, editing, sets, décor, make-up, lighting, narrative structure, and sound design among other audio-visual techniques. Required texts range from films such as A Trip to the Moon (1902) to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), from Bride of Frankenstein (1935) to Ex Machina (2014), from War of the Worlds (1953) to Children of Men (2006), from Alien (1979) to Arrival (2016), and from Blade Runner (1982) to The Watchmen (HBO, 2019) among others.